


The Summerlands

by sidana



Series: Dimensional Warping [2]
Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 17:33:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16223942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidana/pseuds/sidana
Summary: After years on the run, Lyra just might have found herself a truly safe haven





	The Summerlands

Series: Not a direct sequel to 'No Sheep Here' but relies on a couple things said in that story to set this one up.  
Timeline: During the long gap between 'Objects at Rest' and 'Sleeping in Light' for Babylon 5  
Disclaimer: not my characters, not my worlds, no infringement intended.

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The Summerlands

The thunderstorm developed quickly as Lyta made her way through the Rivendell colony's streets. She had been told the rainy season here could be this bad, but had thought the locals been telling tall tales. So she had found herself caught out in a small mixed business and residential district between the official trade district and the space port and was now paying the consequences. She had been quickly nearly drenched by the rain, and had ended up ducking into what looked to be some sort of bar in order to keep from getting even wetter.

As she blinked to get her eyes adjust to the change in light, she saw a man from behind the bar begin to walk toward her.

"Can I help you?"

The man was a mix of striking and beautiful, and would stand out even here where most of the colonists tended toward flamboyant. He had purple eyes and long auburn hair that had been put into dozens of braids. They came just past his waist, and were fastened by small silver bells that jingled as he moved. A deep green vest let him show off well-muscled arms, and the soft reddish brown pants almost perfectly matched his hair. There was something almost not quite real about him.

"I don't need anything other than a chance to stay dry until the rain passes."

"Are you sure? I can get you something to drink."

"I can't quite afford it right now. I'm not broke, but I've got to save everything I've got if I'm going to have enough left to make passage on the next ship out of here."

"It's on the house then."

"Won't you get in trouble with your boss for that?"

"Don't worry, I am the boss," he said, giving her a warm smile.

"Something local and good then. You'd know what that was better than I would."

"I wish all my customers were that easy."

"I'm hardly that, but if you're offering me a gift, these days, I'm not too proud to take it, or try to be fussy about it."

He poured a red liquid into a glass, and offered it to her.

"Thank you," she said as she accepted it.

"Storms like that can take a while to blow through. Why don't you have a seat and relax?"

"I couldn't do that. I'll drip all over everything."

The bar was filled with what looked to be antique furniture that had been shipped all the way from Earth. The sitting area was a mix of small tables and couches that had hand-carved arms and legs and wine-colored upholstery that cost some insane number or credits per square yard.

"Don't worry about that. But since it looks like you'll insist, I'll be right back."

As he vanished into a room behind the bar, she sipped at her drink. It was based on some sort of local fruit, and had a hint of alcohol to it, but not too much.

"Here," he said, returning with a small cloth bundle. "I think they're about your size. I rent rooms out by the night upstairs, and sometimes people leave clothes behind. You can change into those, and I can run what you're wearing now through the dryer. There's a bathroom back by the entrance if you're modest."

She set down her glass, and took him up on his offer. Once she got in the bathroom, she shook out the bundle, dried herself off the best she could with the small towel, and changed into the loose drawstring pants, thin shirt, and cardigan sweater.

"Thanks again," she said as she handed her own clothes to the man. He went back into the room behind the bar with them, presumably to get them dry for her.

"I'm Nathaniel, by the way," he said as he returned. His eyes caught sight of her gloves, so he offered her a small odd bow instead of a handshake.

"I'm Lyta. Thanks for helping me out here."

"You looked and sounded like you needed a break. I know what it's like to have nothing in the universe, and no one to turn to for help. And I know how lucky I was to find people who found me when I was at the lowest point in my life, and helped make me a real person again. These days, I try to pass along a little bit of help when I can."

"Help to strangers who are probably just going to go take advantage of you?" She couldn't help her cynicism. The last few years since G'Kar had gone back to Centauri had been hard on her.

"I trust you. I like how you smell. Besides, you've got that look in your eyes of someone who has seen too much, has fought too many battles and has paid too high of a price to survive along the line. I can't make that look go away, but I can at least use kindness to soften it for an afternoon."

"You don't know anything about me. Maybe I deserve what I've gotten from life."

"I may not be a telepath, but I've always been good at reading people, and I'm not reading you as someone who deserves whatever shit you've taken from life. Besides, we do our best to keep Rivendell off the beaten path. Managed to stay neutral and not get attacked through two wars, and managed to keep EarthGov from even really remembering we exist as long as the tax payments go out on schedule. When outsiders end up here, they usually do for a reason."

"What do you mean, for a reason?"

"Asylum for some, a place to heal for others. Hard core criminals are dealt with rather harshly, but we'll get people who have just done something monumentally stupid, and who need a fresh start."

"So, what is it? You think I need a fresh start?"

"Maybe. Or maybe it's because I can look at you and I can see you fit in with the rest of us misfits somehow. So many of us don't really seem to belong in EarthGov space anymore either. You don't have to go back to wherever it is you came from. Or at the very least, you could take a job here for a while, build and build up enough cash so that when you did leave, you wouldn't get stuck on some other planet or station worse than here."

"So what's happening? You're going to recruit the telepath for something illegal or close to it?"

"There's really not much use for telepaths here. And the ones who do end up on Rivendell usually are looking for a different life than one where they're supposed to monitor trade talks or betray their own kind to keep food on the table. We're not Earth where anyone who is remotely unusual or has some different talent than the masses is to be treated, used, and discarded like some dangerous weapon. That kind of attitude is why a lot of us left Earth to begin with.

Actually, I was thinking that I've got a friend who's in the process of renovating the house he uses when he's in the city. It's hard work- laying tile, painting walls, and fixing some of the original woodwork and such, but it's honest work, and he's willing to pay his contractors well along with letting you live in the townhouse for free while you worked there."

"Nothing other than that?" She wanted to trust Nathaniel, and the stray thoughts she couldn't avoid reading from him seemed to indicate that she could. But still she had been burned and used too many times to just accept.

"Nothing other than that. Jean and I feel the same way about giving people a break in life when they need one. He would never take advantage of you."

"You know, my ship out of here isn't for another three days. Maybe I could go have a look at the place, see if it was going to work out."

"That would be great. I'll let him know I might have found someone for him as soon as he's gotten up. Look, I've got to start up with some baking to get ready for the lunch crowd, but you yell if you need anything for me," Nathaniel said as he headed toward what she assumed was the kitchen, the bells ringing as he walked.

She sipped her drink as she tried to gather her thoughts. It would be a risk to stay here just on a few words from a pretty stranger. But on the other hand, she didn't have much to lose or any place to go that would be better. And it would be nice to have found a place where being a telepath didn't seem to send mothers and small children screaming from her path, and where no one knew or seemed to care about what the Vorlons had done to her. Maybe this wasn't the place to spend the rest of her life, but at least for now, it seemed to offer her more than any other place in the galaxy she had been recently. She would have to tell Nathaniel that she was going to take him up on the offer, at least for a little while.


End file.
